Interracial couple’s home spray-painted with racist death threats
A Pennsylvania couple’s home was vandalized with words and symbols of hate. On Feb. 21, Marlene Williams and Jason Powell found the words, “Die N***er” and “1.87,” along with swastikas spray-painted in black on their garage door.
The code 187 usually refers to murder. Williams, who is Black, and Powell, who is White, are an interracial couple and have lived in Brookline for three years. She said nothing like this has ever happened before. Williams, who lives in the home with Powell and their 5-year-old daughter, said she does not feel safe and that the Pittsburgh Police are not doing anything about it.
“I did call the mayor this morning,” Williams said to the New Pittsburgh Courier on Feb. 24. “And told him that as a citizen of the City of Pittsburgh, I’ve lived here all my life, he’s (Powell) from Alabama, I feel like I’ve been let down as a citizen. I don’t feel safe, I don’t feel my child is safe walking to and from school, and it’s not okay. I feel they’ve been unreliable and the police have not done their job.”
Read more at New Pittsburgh Courier
Williams believes that a couple from her child’s school defaced the property. She says they’ve had an ongoing feud since January however, there are no witnesses.
Williams says the beef started over a cell phone that her boyfriend and daughter found and turned on. She says the couple has harassed her, assaulted her boyfriend and threatened her family.
The Zone 6 police station did not give a response on the incident.
Is it surprising that this incident has not been filed nor treated as a hate crime by police?
What should happen to the perpetrators if captured?
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